Sacrifices

Just a quick warning - This might be considered an “R-rated” subject.  While there will be nothing graphic, it is going to discuss horrifying topics in plain language.

So you must play fantasy role-playing games or you wouldn’t be here.  In the world that you game master or play in, there are bad guys, which include some evil religions that do some evil things.  But why do they do those evil things?  What do they get out of it?

If you answer is, “They do them because they are evil”, then we think you’re taking far too simplistic an approach.  It horrifies me to say this, but today I am siding with the gold farmers.  I don’t see a point to evil folks doing evil things on behalf of their evil gods, demons, devils or whatever unless they are getting something in return.  Why should I sacrifice that huge gem to my god instead of pawn it?

So let’s talk about sacrifices.  First off, why do the divine creatures want them?  Well, if something of value to mortals is sacrificed to the divine, then the divine receives adoration for that, and adoration is their “food”.  It sustains them and makes them stronger (if there is enough of it).

Anything else?  Sure!  Many things can be sacrificed and then be of use to the divine.  Sacrifice a weapon, armor or piece of equipment and the divine can give it either to one of his divine followers or one of his mortal followers.  Just as the item is of value to mortals, so might it be of value to divines.

But there are many things that the divines want that may not be useful to mortals, at least not for the same reasons.  Life is one of the most valuable sacrifices to the divines.  This is why human (or insert sentient race) sacrifice is of such value.  Not only does it supply the divine with adoration (or fear, which is just about as good), but grants the divine being use of that “life” / “soul” (vocabulary gets tricky here) for some time.  This time is typically assumed to be about 10 years.

Why ten years?  What’s ten years to an immortal creature?  Well, ten years to a divine is probably about 10 seconds to a mortal.  The comparison really cannot be made, but from a mortal point of view, it’s probably about the closest analogy we can understand.

Let’s walk through one to show why ten years sort of makes sense:  Evil High Priest Badguy has captured the princess and the rescue party was killed by his pets and followers.  The princess is 15 years old, and other than some typical teen year angst and drama, she’s been a really good girl her whole life.  She attended church services regularly, prayed daily to her goddess, and obeyed her religion’s moral code.  Assuming that the EHP Badguy sacrifices her to his evil alligator god, her immortal soul would be condemned to live in his swampy hell for eternity.  Right?

That’s not fair!  It’s not fair to the princess and, probably more importantly, it’s not fair to her goddess who was expecting to reap a lot more from this girl, both in life and the afterlife.  But the gator god deserves something, right?  I mean, his EHP did offer him the sacrifice.  So the gator god gets her for ten years.  Ten years to hang her over a gator pit or mostly submerged in swamp water or in some other way milk her for all the fear they can pull out of her.

But after those ten years (not an exact science) are up, she has an eternal reward that is waiting for her.  At least in Fletnern, that is what passes as “fair” amongst the gods.  Now, about those ten years:  If no one comes to collect the princess after ten years, maybe because she was so ordinary and plain and did nothing to endear her to her own divine, then the gator god holds on to her.  This is most commonly the end result of sacrificial animals.  There isn’t a god of all doves who keeps track of every dove sacrificed at every ritual and exactly ten years to the day after they are sacrificed, he drags his happy dove god butt over to hell to bring his follower(s) home.  It’s not worth it to him.

So in this example, most sacrificed animals will remain with the god they were sacrificed to for eternity.  What does he do with them?  Well, most likely, he feeds his “troops”, whatever they are.  You know those stories of the chariot goats getting eaten every night but being reborn every morning to pull the chariot again?  Yeah - like that.  There might be other things to do, but while a dove can get very afraid, it’s not like a divine creature is going to get much sustenance out of it.

Lots more to come on this topic!

For more on how we think gods should work in FRPGs, check out Gods and Demons by click the link here.  We not only give 200 divines you can use or modify for your games, but we also go on at length about how their powers can work, and lots more about the adoration and fear topic.